Bethel Baptist Church

Scripture Reading: Genesis: 30:25-36 Bethel Baptist Church warmly welcomes Rev. Ian Leslie, former Executive Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Trenton.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 25: 31-46 Imagine setting a meal for strangers and finding them no ordinary strangers but in fact angels or even the Lord Himself! Hebrews 13:2 says that "some have unknowingly entertained angels." (Abraham & Lot, Genesis 18-19.) After Covid-19 did we ever regain the grace of hospitality? 1.     God graciously shows us remarkable hospitality, thus modeling and enabling o...

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:31-41 In Luke 4, Luke begins to relate the healing acts of Jesus.  Such miracles make up a significant part of what Jesus did during His three-year ministry.  The two stories found in our passage in Luke 4, depict the authority of Jesus.  What we have in this passage is a glorious demonstration of Jesus' authority over the demonic world and authority over sickness.   Agai...

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:14-30 The account of Jesus teaching in the synagogue is the story of Jesus teaching people who had seen Him as a boy.  In the synagogue in Nazareth, Jesus reads from a well-known prophecy about the coming of the Messiah, from Isaiah 61.  He then proceeds to astonish the people there that day by saying, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing" (Lk 4:21). W...

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 1:10-17 Without thinking about it, many people probably feel they can approach God in any manner they desire and He will respond to their prayer.  It's almost the idea that God is so desperate, He will accept anyone who will give Him the slightest glance or the weakest nod.  This could not be farther from the truth.  The Almighty is not desperate for attention, nor is He...

Scripture Reading: Luke 4:1-14 There are at least three fundamental lessons to be learned from the temptation of our Lord.  The first is that these temptations reveal Jesus' divine holiness.  His perfection, as God, is on full display.  This is a great comfort to us to think that He triumphed where we fail so miserably.  He is our righteousness in the day of judgment.  We rejoice in His obedient p...

Scripture Reading: Luke 3:15-22 John the Baptist came with a single message:  "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand" (Mt 3:2).  Those people who accepted this message and confessed their sins with sorrow, were baptized by him (Lk 3:3).  With that message in mind, it is curious that Jesus would come to John and ask to be baptized.  He did not have any sins of which to repent of (Heb 4:15).  At...

Scripture Reading: Luke 3:1-14 John the baptizer came heralding the Messiah and he prepared the hearts of the people of Israel by calling them to repentance.  They demonstrated their repentance by being baptized in the Jordan River.  The announcement of the coming Messiah took place, not in the temple, nor even in Jerusalem, but it was delivered by a "voice, crying in the wilderness."  John was an...

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:39-52 This account, found only in Luke's gospel, recalls Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy.  It is the only story we have of Christ between His infancy and the beginning of His public ministry. What is revealed in this account is the union of humanity and divinity in one person.  The humanity of Jesus is on display, not only in the fact that Jesus was twelve years old, but a...

Scripture Reading: Psalm 19:7-11 Our day is a day in which changes have profoundly affected the way life is viewed and the way it is lived.  We have witnessed not only radical changes in communication and technology, but changes in values.  A  clear, unambiguous standard of what is right and wrong has eroded before our eyes.  Fewer and fewer people still believe in absolute truth. What is needed i...

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:22-35 How refreshing it is to have the gospels deliver to us the accounts of the life of Christ in all His excellencies.   Here, in Luke 2, we have another scene of the birth of our Savior.  The whole meaning of Christ, in concise form, is found in the declarations of Simeon, an old man in the temple. He took Jesus in his arms and declared, "Lord, now you are letting your...

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-14 Perhaps the best-known biblical passage recording the birth of Christ is found in Luke 2.  Matthew has some other details concerning His birth, but this account (indeed, this entire chapter) occurs only in Luke.  Here we have Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem, due to a Roman census.  According to Micah 5:2, the Jewish Messiah would come from Bethlehem.  This emp...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:67-80 Much like Mary's song of praise, upon hearing about the child she would bear, so Zechariah has a song of praise after his son is born.  We might expect that Zechariah's expressions would center on his beloved son.  He does mention the boy (Lk 1:76), but the focus of this blessed exaltation of praise is on the Lord God and the One whom He will send. The word 'salvati...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:46-55 Mary's exultation in God in this wonderful poem is both passionate and insightful. And we have the same God. Even though for her to bear the Messiah is a unique event, it is possible for us to know the same awe and joy that she experienced. For us to feel what Mary felt we must see with the eyes of our soul, what she saw, and we must deeply know the God that she kne...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:46-55 To a wide-eyed 5-year-old, the celebration of the birth of Christ means lights and toys and brightly-wrapped boxes under a living room tree.  To a retailer it means increased sales and profits.  To a busy housewife Christmas is a fatiguing schedule of shopping, decorating, and cooking. But to Mary, Jesus' mother, the promised birth of the Messiah was an occasion for...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:34-38 One of the foundational things to be said about Jesus is that He was/is the Son of God.  The angel declared this wonder to Mary.  "And the angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy - the Son of God'" (Lk 1:35).   Simon Peter declared this wonder when...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-38 Matthew and Luke both record that Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but only Luke writes about the conversation between the angel Gabriel and Mary.  This account parallels, in many ways, the announcement of the birth of John the Baptist. Among other significant truths revealed in this passage, is the staggering fact that Mary would give birth to a son...

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:5-25 In his recounting the life of Christ, Luke begins with the announcement, not of the birth of Christ, but of John the Baptist.  John would be the prophesied herald of the Messiah.  In the first two chapters of his gospel, Luke draws a connection between John and Christ, by means of alternating accounts of each man.  This literary devise emphasizes the wonder of the co...

Bethel Baptist Church is delighted to host visiting missionaries from Iceland Dale and Linnea Kellar.

Scripture Reading: Luke 1:1-4 The Holy Spirit has chosen to give us four accounts of the life of Christ, and not just one account.  Like four men standing around a great mountain, each writing what he sees, the gospel writers each wrote from a different viewpoint what he 'saw' when he looked at Christ. Matthew and John were apostles and so they were eyewitnesses of Christ's life.  Mark seems to ha...

Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:6-21 The epilogue of the book of Revelation highlights two final themes ... the authenticity of the book and the approaching wonder of the return of Christ. As Christ is called "faithful and true" in Revelation 3:14 and 19;11, so His words are "faithful and true" in Revelation 21:5 and 22:6. There is a marked emphasis in Revelation on what John has written (Rev 1:3...

Scripture Reading: Revelation 22:1-15 John ends his glorious book by describing heaven to his readers.  Here we have a final description of the population of heaven ... and the pleasure of heaven. The people who will enjoy the presence of God will be His servants who will reign with Him (Rev 22:3,5).  They are the righteous and holy, who have washed their robes (Rev 22:11,14).  The people who will...

Scripture Reading: Revelation 21:9-27 Revelation 21 and 22 usher us into the eternal state of blessedness for those who belong to Christ and sorrow for those who have rejected Christ.  The everlasting home for believers is the new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem.  The eternal city is gloriously described in this passage.  This wondrous, and enormous, city descends from heaven and is called "t...

Scripture Reading: Revelation 21:1-8 In this glorious section of Revelation, God draws back the curtain of heaven and bids us to behold the wonders and pleasures that await those who belong to Him.  He says, "Behold, I am making all things new" (Rev 21:5).  There are several ways in which God will make things new. First, He will make a new universe.  "I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the fi...

Scripture Reading: Revelation 20:11-15 This passage describes a great judgment before God in a future day.  This will be a judgment in which the dead are raised and judged "according to what they had done" (Rev 20:13).  Scholars debate whether this "great white throne" judgment will be for unbelievers alone or for all people.  What is not debatable is the reality that, whether in one judgment or i...